Books that I read in 2017/18

I spent the bulk of 2017/18 travelling. I went to New Zealand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India (and I have plenty of climate anxiety about it). During this time, I rediscovered my love of reading, and I read anything and everything I could find:

New Zealand

• Essential – Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus

• Minimalism – Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus

• Everything That Remains – Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus

• Leaving Time – Jodi Picoult

• Lone Wolf – Jodi Picoult

• Under a Pole Star – Stef Penney

• The Telling Error – Sophie Hannah

• The Last of Us – Rob Ewing

• The Man Who Couldn’t Stop – David Adam

• Where Earth Meets Sky – Annie Murray

Vietnam

• The Game – Neil Strauss

Sri Lanka

• The Truth – Neil Strauss

• The Husbands Secret – Liane Moriarty

• What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding – Kristin Newman

• Come Back Frayed – Colin Wright

• The Power – Naomi Alderman

• How to Stop Time – Matt Haig

• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - J. K. Rowling

• The Cocaine Diaries – Jeff Farrell and Paul Keany

• The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

UK

• This is Going to Hurt – Adam Kay

India

• The Heart Goes Last – Margaret Atwood

• A Street Cat Named Bob – James Bowen

• The Woman Who Stole My Life – Marian Keyes

• Everyday Sexism – Laura Bates

• The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening – L. J. Smith

• Journey Across Tibet – Sorrel Wilby

• The Psychopath Test – Jon Ronson

• The Idiot Brain – Dean Burnett

• Vanishing Tracks – Darla Hillard

• The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss

• How to be Champion – Sarah Millican

• The Wise Man’s Fear – Patrick Rothfuss

• 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think – Brianna Wiest

• Notes on a Nervous Planet – Matt Haig

• Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari

• A Walk In The Woods – Bill Bryson

• Let It Go – Chris Williams

Looking back on a list of books means more than just a reflection of the hours spent staring at their pages, it triggers memories of where I was and how I felt when I read each one. In the early days of travel, I read on farms in New Zealand, excited to be experiencing an adventure away from home and remembering how much I loved to read. Later in my trip, reading became an introvert's escape from the daily assaults of travelling. At the field house in Sri Lanka, reading meant curling up in my mosquito net and passing idle hours. While in India, I read every single day, and even read one of these books at 4,500 m while acclimatising before climbing a 6,500 m mountain.

I have a few favourites in this list; Under a Pole Star because it featured a geologist/explorer that reminded me of James, Leaving Time simply because it's by Jodi Picoult and I love all her books, and The Name of The Wind because it was the best fantasy novel I've read since The Magician's Apprentice trilogy.

Wearing SPF 50. Reading The Kite Runner. Accidentally burning to a crisp on a beach in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

I'm so glad I rediscovered reading while I was away, especially when travel delays become reading opportunities in disguise.